N.J. begins eminent domain process against coastal land owners

Bay Head had 123 unsigned easements, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.(Photo: DOUG HOOD/ASBURY PARK PRESS)Buy Photo

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The Christie administration filed its first eminent domain actions yesterday to obtain land from oceanfront property owners who have so far been unwilling to sign easements necessary for beach replenishment and dune building work.

The first legal proceedings were filed against property owners in Ship Bottom and Ocean City.

TRENTON – The Christie administration has filed the first legal actions against beachfront property owners in Ship Bottom and Ocean City who have refused to allow access to their property for beach replenishment and dune construction considered vital to protect the coast against future storms.

The eminent domain filings — one made in Ocean County Superior Court and the second in Cape May County — mark an escalation of the state’s efforts to acquire the easements necessary for the U.S. Army Corps to complete beach replenishment projects.

“Owners of beachfront properties up and down the coast have overwhelmingly stepped forward and done the right thing,” state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, a few holdouts continue to refuse to provide easements, forcing us to seek condemnation of portions of their properties so we can move forward with projects that will protect lives and property.”

After superstorm Sandy devastated many coastal areas in 2012, Governor Chris Christie issued Executive Order No. 140 in September 2013, directing the Attorney General’s Office and the DEP to take any necessary actions to obtain property easements. Easements are the legal documents beachfront property owners must sign to give the Army Corps access to their land.

The state has secured about 90 percent of the 4,279 easements needed for beach protection projects. But 388 easements — from 244 property owners — still are needed.

The bulk of those are in northern Ocean County, one of the area’s hardest hit by Sandy, which carved a new inlet to the Barnegat Bay in Mantoloking and washed away more than 200 homes in Toms River’s Ortley Beach section. In Bay Head, 123 easements still are outstanding, while in Point Pleasant Beach, 68 are missing. Many Bay Head oceanfront owners have paid to rebuild and extend a rock wall on their beach and say they do not want the Army Corps to build dunes there.

Point Pleasant Beach’s Jenkinson’s Pavilion sued the DEP, the borough and the Army Corps in federal court, saying that granting the easement necessary for the beach replenishment project would essentially make a public beach out of private property.

The lack of progress on beach replenishment has frustrated both residents and some Toms River council members. On Saturday, the Ortley Beach Voters and Taxpayers Association has scheduled a 9:30 a.m. march from the bay to the ocean and a 10:30 a.m. rally to protest beach replenishment delays.

Toms River Councilman George E. Witttmann Jr. criticized the DEP on July 14 for not moving quickly enough to file eminent domain actions against easement holdouts.

DEP spokesman Larry Hajna said state officials have repeatedly stressed to residents that “we’re doing everything possible to get these easements.”

“The governor has stated very clearly that we are going to build a statewide protection system,” Hajna said. “He has said we are going to do it, by whatever means necessary.”

Coastal protection projects are underway in various parts of the shore.

Toms River easements threatened by language dispute

Last year, the Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with DEP, completed eight post-Sandy beach repair projects, returning roughly 45 miles of previously engineered and constructed beaches along the New Jersey coast to their original protective construction design at a cost of $345 million, the DEP said.

The Army Corps and DEP currently are undertaking a $128 million beach and dune construction project on Long Beach Island; a $57.6 million beach and dune project in southern Ocean City, the Strathmere section of Upper Township and Sea Isle City in Cape May County; and a $38.2 million project to construct beaches and improve infrastructure in the area of Loch Arbour, Allenhurst and Deal in Monmouth County.

“The property easements we have obtained, and the easements we still seek, are vital to coastal protection efforts that benefit all New Jersey residents,” acting Attorney General John Hoffman said. “We appreciate that many property owners — clearly mindful of the destruction caused by Superstorm Sandy — have unselfishly donated easements for the greater good rather than engage the State in protracted litigation. But to those who continue to hold out, our message is that we remain committed to acquiring these easements as expeditiously as possible, and — consistent with a landmark Supreme Court decision issued in 2013 — without paying windfalls at the public’s expense.”

In October, DEP Commissioner Martin stood on the beach in Brick and said that the state would obtain all easements — the legal documents beachfront homeowners must sign to give access to their property — by the end of 2014.

New Jersey would use its powers under the Disaster Control Act to quickly take the property, if homeowners did not voluntarily sign the easements, Martin said.

But that plan hit a snag when judges in Ocean and Atlantic counties said the state could not use the Disaster Control Act to take properties, and instead must follow existing eminent domain procedures, which take longer.

Toms River council members recently have lobbed criticism at the DEP and the Attorney General’s Office for not moving faster to file eminent domain proceedings after the courts ruled the state could not take properties by using the Disaster Control Act.